Interiors – Page 27 – Apartment Apothecary

Let me tell you a bit more about how you can buy homewares and gifts directly from my blog. I am always asked where bits and pieces in my home are from either here or on Instagram; no one has the time to trawl through shop after shop and some people don’t even like shopping (ha – if only that were true of me!). To help solve this problem I have brought together a collection of items from some of my favourite shops that you can buy right here, without the need to head off to several different shop sites. You can see the full collection here (and in future, remember there is a shop category in my blog header on the far right hand side).

I have lots of the items myself or they are on my wish list, so if you like my home there’s a good chance you’ll like the items too. Here are a few examples from my bedroom and home office (if you like any of the items just click on them to view more details and then you can add them to your basket right here)…

After a few busy weeks I finally have a bit of time to sit down and start thinking ahead…to Christmas! I unashamedly love this time of year and the sooner we get celebrating the better in my book. I would love to do lots of lovely crafty bits in the lead up, a few decorations and some homemade gifts – hopefully it will give you all a bit of inspiration.

Another thing I would like to do, to take a bit of pressure off you, is add lots more products to my ‘shop‘ that will be perfect for Christmas presents so make sure you check back and watch out for my weekly gift guides that will pop up from next week. And if you’re not keen on Christmas or presents, why not just treat yourself?!

Katy x

I have always wanted to be a better sleeper; I don’t have a problem getting to sleep but staying asleep is another matter. I have never, ever (not even as a teenager) had a proper lie-in because come 7am and I am pretty much awake, no matter what (and make that 6am if I have had a few drinks the night before – so unfair!). A few years ago I also had to have a couple of hip operations and all my joints are a bit out of whack so pain can disturb my sleep and the amount I get can also have an effect on my pain levels.

Over time I have learnt that the temperature of my room, the amount of light and the quality of my duvet, pillows and bedlinen are very important to the amount of sleep I get. We sleep with our balcony door open every night, I spent a hideous amount of money on properly lined curtains and I’m pretty sure that you have caught on by now that I’m keen on the best quality bed linen! However, when I bought our current flat nearly six years ago I scrimped on a fairly cheap mattress, far keener to spend money on more aesthetically pleasing things. After a while it became clear that it was a false economy and so I had to buy an expensive memory foam topper, which has done us well until now.

When Leesa got in touch asking us to review their ‘one size fits all’ mattress I didn’t hesitate. Leesa is an American company that launched here in July. They offer just one mattress design in varying sizes (at an affordable price from £390) which totally removes the stress of choosing an important purchase based on lying on it self consciously in the store for five minutes. In fact, Leesa offer a 100-night risk free trial to all customers for the very reason that it is simply impossible to tell whether a mattress is right for you after such a short time. Here’s how we (including Otto – obvs) got on with our mattress…

Foam mattress review with Leesa | Golden Retriever on bed | White bedroom with blush pink accents | Apartment Apothecary

The mattress arrives in a small hassle-free box. Ours arrived just before we were lending our flat to friends for the weekend so we didn’t open it and left it in the corner and they didn’t even notice it. Once I opened the vacuum packed mattress it takes a few seconds to start filling up with air and it says on the box to leave it for an hour before it feels good. Back I came after an hour and obviously Otto had already made himself at home!

Foam mattress review with Leesa | Golden Retriever on bed | White bedroom with blush pink accents | Apartment Apothecary

The mattress cover is lovely and soft and then there is a 5cm foam top layer, a 5cm memory foam middle layer and then a 12cm dense core support foam bottom layer. I was a little worried that all this foam would envelop me and I would feel like I couldn’t move around in the night, which I do a lot. However, it is surprisingly springy and I can move around with ease, not leaving an imprint. The dense foam layer is supportive and firm at its core.

Once I had got the dog off (he sits at the foot of the bed with his chin planted on the mattress to ask to come up) and I could make the bed it was very exciting to try it for the first time.

Foam mattress review with Leesa | Golden Retriever on bed | White bedroom with blush pink accents | Apartment Apothecary

I have to admit that I immediately had a two hour nap once the hour we had to wait for the mattress to grow to size was up as it makes the bed so cosy and soft.

Foam mattress review with Leesa | Golden Retriever on bed | White bedroom with blush pink accents | Apartment Apothecary

Having slept on the mattress for the last couple of weeks I am getting more and more used to it. Leesa say to give it 30 days before making up your mind about it as I think it is quite an adjustment from your standard sprung mattress. They also give the guarantee – ‘if you’re not sleeping better on a Leesa within 100 nights, we can donate your mattress to a local charity and provide a full refund’. You can’t argue with that.

Foam mattress review with Leesa | Golden Retriever on bed | White bedroom with blush pink accents | Apartment Apothecary

I slept really well last night and now the mornings are so much darker I made it to 8am. Jules really likes the mattress and it absorbs his movement much more than a sprung mattress, which is another bonus. As for Otto, he can not get enough of it.

What do you do to get a good night’s sleep?

Katy x

P.S. Leesa is kindly offering my readers £50 off their mattress – just use the code APARTMENTAPOTHECARY50.

*This post was written in collaboration with Leesa.

I have to be honest that when I see a ‘personalised’ category in an online shop I cringe a bit; it’s never been my cup of tea. However, I have to eat a big slice of humble pie and tell you that I have changed my mind. I was sent a package of items from Zazzle, specialists in creating personalised accessories, homewares, gifts and even fabric and I enjoyed every part of the ordering process. The main turning point for me was that I was in control of the personalisation and I could tailor the products exactly to my tastes and needs: you can upload your own photographs, designs, graphics, fonts and have these printed on stationery, ceramics, fabric – the possibilities are endless.

It took me ages to decide what I wanted as there are so many choices and if I was a bit more creative I really could have had a field day; imagine designing your own fabric! However, you don’t need to be creative at all because as well as designing your own products you can order designs made by others. In the end I chose some cards, a tote bag and some fabric monogrammes.

Personalised Christmas cards with Zazzle | Golden Retriever puppy | Apartment Apothecary

Matte square cards

I am honestly in LOVE with the Christmas cards that I made using a photograph of Otto that I took last Christmas; never have I been so excited to open a parcel! I chose the square cards so that I could use an Instagram photograph. The matte effect looks and feels really high quality – I can not wait to give these to family and friends.

I also chose this pretty monogramme design on cotton that I personalised with a ‘K’. I can appliqué these onto sewing projects and the quality of the print and colours is excellent.

Personalised monogram for sewing projects from Zazzle | Sewing labels | Apartment Apothecary

Combed cotton with Whimsical Floral Wreath Monogramme

I couldn’t resist getting a personalised tote bag with my blog logo 😉 The tote itself is a great size and is made of thick, strong cotton. The one thing I would say is that when you upload a graphic to personalise off-white fabric make sure you take into account the colour of the fabric – I should have made my logo background brighter to offset the natural colour of the canvas.

Jumbo tote bag

And just one more pic of Otto cards as I couldn’t resist!

Personalised Christmas cards with Zazzle | Golden Retriever puppy | Apartment Apothecary

I’d love to get some personalised postcards and gift tags for Christmas and there are so many fabric designs that I want – isn’t this one beautiful? It would be amazing on linen for a summer project.

What do you think of personalised items? Pop over to Zazzle and have a play – you may change your mind, too. If you’re quick, there’s 20% off every order that ends today!

Katy x

*This post was written in collaboration with Zazzle.

Last week was insanely busy both during the days and the evenings; add to that not having been at home for four weekends in a row and I feel like a bit of a hectic crazy lady (and if only you could see how much laundry I need to do). However, there was one afternoon, tucked away in the folds of the mania, that was a little pocket of heaven. The gorgeous Zeena Shah and Lynne from Papermash invited a little group of us to try out one of the printing technique’s from Zeena’s brilliant new book How to Print Fabric. They had laid out the most beautiful table for us at the Town Hall Hotel‘s corner room (you know the one with all the cool lights that crops up on Instragram all the time) surrounded by gorgeous seasonal props. We spent a dreamy afternoon printing napkins, chatting, drinking tea, laughing and then styling an Autumn themed dining table together.

Luggage labels from Papermash.

Jeska and I styled up this table together and being the kindest person in the whole wide world, she sent me over these beautiful photographs that she took as I was hopelessly disorganised with no camera. It was totally pitch black outside by then and I quite love the tone and colours of the room that work so well with the Autumn leaves, flowers and table setting.

I find printing to be such a relaxing craft and we used fallen leaves as the template for lino cutting. We stamped onto linen napkins and then set the perfect November table. I’m not usually a fan of Autumn colours but our styling has inspired me to embrace them. I have made an Autumnal collection of products from some of my favourite shops (including The Future Kept that Jeska runs with her husband, Dean) that you can buy directly from my blog – beautiful golds, russets and copper…

Gold glitter alphabet stickers from Papermash.

It really was a gorgeous, cosy afternoon and so great to hang out with Jeska, Teri, Lucy, Kat and Charley. Thank you so much to Zeena, Lynne and the Town Hall Hotel. Have you got an Autumnal crafts planned?

Katy x

P.S. You can buy Zeena’s book here – I would definitely recommend it if you need some craft inspiration. All photos (except the header, which I took on my iPhone) taken by Jeska of Lobster and Swan.

As you know, last year I embarked on transforming our guest room into a home office and I wanted it to be a bright, motivating space with white walls, floors and furniture to allow the light to bounce around the room. Over the last year I have loved this space but I woke up last Saturday morning and had an intense desire to start adding more pastel colours to my home to make it feel more cohesive as my bedroom and office have a lot of pastels (I warn you, I can feel a whole sitting room makeover coming on – be gone dark colours!).

I decided to start the process by adding a bit of colour to my home office with a quick and easy paint project. There is one corner of my office that has never felt quite right. It feels lifeless and cold with no definition. Here is how it looked before…

I wanted to paint the drawers a pastel colour to bring a bit of warmth to this corner but I couldn’t decide between a dusty pastel pink, blue, green or grey (all these colours thread throughout the office and bedroom at the moment – watch out sitting room, they are coming for you!). I used Dulux’s free Vizualizer app to help me make my colour decision. As I’ve said before, it can be so difficult to picture the end result when you are decorating so this app is a brilliant tool to help you feel more confident to make colour decisions. All you have to do is hold your phone up in front of the piece of furniture or wall that you want to paint and pick from their huge range of colours and the app will virtually paint the wall/furniture with the colour you choose. You can then save the image and share it directly. I don’t know about you, but I always like to get a bit of feedback from friends. I quickly realised that pink gave the most warmth and tied in well with the bits and bobs that I have on the shelves. I tried out a few different pinks with the app and finally settled on Dulux’s Pink Nevada 6 that is a soft pastel pink – not too sugary.

The app even told me where my nearest Dulux stockist was so I popped to the hardware store and bought a tin of the paint in satinwood and I was confident enough, after using the app, to buy a tin without getting loads of paint samples. This saved loads of time and faffing and didn’t consume my whole weekend.

And here is what this corner of my home office looks like now; much warmer and more cohesive as the pink of the drawers pulls all of the pink around it together. It is now much more of a feature than it was before. Pretty in pink!

I used this vase, flowers and book as colour inspiration and the app also allowed me to colour match the vase to the nearest Dulux shade of pink, which was incredibly helpful as I love this colour.

I’m really pleased with how bringing more colour into this room has worked out and the process was made so much easier using the Dulux Visualizer app. You can download the app here.

What do you think (please don’t say you like the ‘before’ better than the ‘after’ – ha!)?

Katy x

Shop what i love

A good night’s sleep: a mattress review

Personalised accessories with Zazzle

Printing with Zeena and Papermash at the Town Hall Hotel

Furniture makeover